The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 2022 and the subsequent founding of the
Ukrainian foreign legion motivated thousands of international volunteers to travel to Ukraine,
many of them reaching the frontline as foreign fighters. These individuals are markedly
different from the terrorist foreign fighters that academic literature and international policy have
mostly been concerned with over the past two decades, as well as from the first wave of foreign
fighters that arrived in Ukraine after the invasion of Crimea in 2014. This paper aims to explore
these differences and the reasons for them, expanding the current understanding of the foreign
fighter phenomenon and proposing new categories to expand existing typologies. The work is
based on a review and analytical reading of existing academic literature on the subject and
recent media coverage of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. In addition to the universal
motivations of foreign fighters, like the search for adventure or a new beginning, a number of
situation-specific motivations are apparent. So-called "concerned citizens of the world" wish to
support Ukraine in the fight of "good versus evil", "performative and fake fighters" exploit their
war experience for attention on social media, and "avengers" want revenge for the oppression
their ethnic group suffered at the hands of Russia.
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